Win XP SP2 hanging sporadically on booting

Hi Guys!

In the last 2 or three weeks, I had the following problem 3 times:

When I booted my Computer with Windows XP SP2, it did fine until the point, when the wallpaper, desktop symbols and the taskbar were loaded, but then, it did nothing anymore. The taskbar symbols didnt come up and obviously no more programs where loaded (antivir, firewall...)
I was able to move the cursor, but couldn't click anything. When I moved the cursor over the taskbar, only the sandglass appeared. The computer still acessed the hdd sporadically, but even after a few minutes, nothing more happened, so I had to reset it.

Does anyone have a clue what could cause these sporadic problem?
Is there a way to find out on which point specifically the computer hangs? I remember, I heard about a program which can log the booting process, does anyone know the name?

Thank you very much for your help!

Greets
Tobi

 

Thats a common occurrence.

First:
- I would recommend to do a Check Disk to make sure that the HDD has no errors, if there are errors it will get fixed.
- go to START > Run > type: cmd
- (in Command Prompt) type: chkdsk c: /r
- press Y to agree to do the scan after next restart
- RESTART your PC (let the Check Disk happen)

if that does not help

Second:
- network configs have been known to cause lockups
- go to Network Connections > right-click on Wireless Network Connection > Disable
- do the same with the Local Area Connection

Try that

Then also check if your XP is configured correctly to utilize both your dual core CPU:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

Tell us how it goes.

 

Thank you for your comprehensive answer!

I'll try chkdsk and check my network settings. I use Wireless, so might be there's a problem.

But I'll go to bed now and try it tomorrow, it's 2:30am here...

 

Hi again!

Now I let Checkdisk run, there were no errors found, only some indices it cleaned up.

But when I had a look into my network connections, i remembered something:
There are 3 entries: Wireless, LAN and 1394 (firewire). A few weeks ago (might be the point the problem occured for the first time), I disabled the 1394-connection, as I never use it, but left Wireless and LAN on.

Perhaps it has to do with this change. Now I tried also to disable LAN, because I only need wireless.

I'll see if it is fine now, if not, I'll try the default setting with all three connections active.

But it seems very likely to have to do with the network settings, because the point where the computer hangs sometimes is pretty much the point when the network connections are loaded.

Greets
Tobi

 

Sounds like a pretty solid lead to fixing it. Nice work

 

I'll keep you uo how it's going! The last 2 times, the system booted normally.

 

OK, just wanted to say I didn't have the issue anymore, so disabling all kinds of network connections which are not needed solved the problem for me obviously.
Just wanted to write it down, perhaps it will help anyone else later.